Alternative to Tazz_Tux's Stats/Usage Setup Script

[halfhaggis]

I want to measure bandwidth usage using my cellphone as a modem.
Tazz_Tux's bash script wasn't working for me, so I googled a little and found a handy command-line app called vnstat.

vnstat should work with any network device that works in linux. Just choose the device that it should monitor (eth0, ppp0 etc), and you're sorted.

Read the article about it at Linux.com
you should be able to easily install it with # apt-get install vnstat
if you are using a debian-based distro.

 

[redarrow]

Well if you're using Gnome then it's easy to get usage stats..
Just use the "Gnome Modem Lights" panel applet..

You just need to set the "modem lockfile" to your modem.. (something like: /var/lock/LCK..ttyUSB0 ) and you'll now have nice usage stats right there on the panel..
It also shows your current speed (in Bytes per second) and whether you're currently sending or receiving data..

EDIT: Oh yes.. the "modem lights" applet doesn't save stats or anything.. it just shows usage for the current connection.. so if you want logs or more complicated stats then it won't be much use..

 

[v3gout]

vnstat works great - just one thing missing from the installation instructions: make sure the php5-gd package is installed, otherwise you won't see the graphs.

 

[v3gout]

Oh yes - remember to restart apache2:

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart